Volunteer project improving life in poor areas

Update:
February, 22/2018 - 08:00

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The project of recruiting 500 youth volunteers who are the nation’s best and brightest to work as civil servants in rural and mountainous communes in the period 2013-20, often called Project 500, has reached significant achievements.— VNA/VNS Photo Đức Hiếu

HÀ NỘI — The project of recruiting 500 youth volunteers who are the nation’s best and brightest to work as civil servants in rural and mountainous communes in the period 2013-20, often called Project 500, has reached significant achievements.

The findings were confirmed in a report by the Ministry of Home Affairs, which were proclaimed in three preliminary summary conferences in northern, central and southern areas. The conferences were held by the ministry at the end of last year.

Reviewing more than four years of implementing the project, Vũ Đăng Minh, director of the Youth Affairs Department under the Ministry of Home Affairs, said that the project always received direction from leaders from central to grassroots levels.

The project also received encouragement and support from local workers and residents, who created good conditions for project members to fulfill their tasks, he said.

The project members contributed lots of their efforts to promote the local socio-economy, sustainable poverty reduction, transparency and equality, said Minh.

So far 202 project members had been admitted to the Party, whereas 141 others are attending training courses about the Party in preparation to be admitted.

Trần Hữu Anh, deputy director of the Quảng Trị Department of Home Affairs, said that recruiting young enthusiastic intellectuals to poor remote districts helped better implement tasks of keeping national defense and building new rural living style.

Quảng Trị central province received 12 young people to work in 12 communes in Vĩnh Linh, Hải Lăng and Đăkrông districts, and all of the youth were assessed to fulfill their work excellently.

Proper policy

Nguyễn Thị Ánh Lan, deputy director of the Quảng Ngãi Department of Home Affairs, said that the central province defined that the project was a proper policy of the Party and the State.

The project was one of the best methods helping poor remote communes in the province to cope with their difficulties.

The province authorities arrange young people in the proper position based on their capacity to create good conditions for them to develop, Lan said.

Director Vũ Đăng Minh also agreed that Project 500 was a good policy to improve the quality of human resources in underprivileged communes, promote socio-economic development and contribute to the reduction of hunger and poverty in disadvantaged localities.

Concerns

Mentioning some shortcomings of the project during the past four years, the ministry’s report said that the direction of the project in several communes was not good enough, so local authorities did not understand much about its targets.

The localities did not assign duties for the young people in time, and did not set up long-term plans to implement the project, so many project member worried where they could go when the project ended, said the report.

Nguyễn Lê Hải Phong, a project member who is working at the Vinh Hà Commune People’s Committee in Phú Vang District, the central province of Thừa Thiên-Huế, said that many local authorities thought that the members worked in their localities for just five years, so they did not let them attend political and professional training courses. They were not listed in the long-term leadership scheme for the localities.

Worrying about work and further training after the project’s completion, member Phạm Văn Quân, who works at the Thạch Kim Commune People’s Committee in Lộc Hà District, the central province of Hà Tĩnh, said that several localities still gave priority to local youth, and did not pay enough attention and care to the youth volunteers who worked in the localities.

Lê Thị Ngọc Huyền, a member working in Hải Ninh Commune People’s Committee in Quảng Ninh District, the central province of Quảng Bình, proposed that the Ministry of Home Affairs should issue guidance documents about assigning work for the project members after the project ended so that the members could feel secure.

Vision needed

Trần Hữu Anh, deputy director of the Quảng Trị Department of Home Affairs, said that assigning work for the project member after the project ended remained a problem.

The Ministry of Home Affairs did not have guidance documents about the work, whereas the country was implementing reductions in staff, so localities could not locate training and further work for the project members, he said.

Sharing the concern, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Nguyễn Trọng Thừa said that the ministry had prepared carefully when implementing the project.

The ministry paid a lot of attention in choosing, training and working with every locality to prepare for the project, he said. “Preceding generations will be responsible for the young generation. The youth should feel secure and fulfill their work well”. — VNS